The jump in SoftBank shares reflects growing investor confidence that steady telecom cash flows and Arm’s accelerating AI-driven shift toward data centers can underpin the group’s long-term strategy.
Shares of SoftBank Group Corp surged more than 10% after its telecom subsidiary, SoftBank Corp, raised its full-year profit outlook, while renewed optimism around Arm Holdings reinforced bullish sentiment toward the group’s exposure to artificial intelligence.
The immediate catalyst was the upgraded guidance from SoftBank Corp, which reported resilient results for the first nine months of fiscal 2025. Revenue rose 8% year on year to a record 5.2 trillion yen for the period, while operating income also climbed 8% to 884 billion yen. On the back of that performance, the telecom operator lifted its full-year revenue forecast to 6.95 trillion yen from 6.7 trillion yen and increased its operating income target to 1.02 trillion yen, pointing to confidence that momentum will be sustained into the final quarter.
Management stressed that the numbers reflected steady execution rather than aggressive growth. In the consumer segment, revenue rose 3%, and segment income increased 6%, even as smartphone subscribers declined by about 100,000 in the third quarter. The drop followed tighter customer-acquisition policies, as the company deliberately pulled back on promotions and incentives that boost subscriber counts but weigh on profitability. The strategy signals a shift toward maximizing lifetime customer value and margins in a mature Japanese mobile market where growth is increasingly incremental.
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 19 (Feb 9 – May 2, 2026).
Register for Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and co-invest in great global startups.
Register for Tekedia AI Lab.
For SoftBank Group investors, the importance of the telecom arm goes beyond its standalone performance. The unit provides predictable cash flows that help stabilize the broader group, which has been rebuilding credibility after years marked by volatile returns from technology investments. Stronger guidance from SoftBank Corp, therefore, reassures the market that the group has a firmer earnings base as it continues to pursue high-growth opportunities elsewhere.
That context helps explain why gains in Arm Holdings amplified the rally in SoftBank shares. SoftBank remains Arm’s largest shareholder, making the British chip designer central to the group’s valuation and its artificial intelligence narrative. Recent strength in Arm’s stock has revived confidence that the company can play a structural role in global AI infrastructure rather than remain tethered to the slower-growing smartphone market.
Arm’s latest results and commentary have reinforced that shift. Chief executive Rene Haas said data-center royalty revenue has grown more than 100% year on year and is expected to become Arm’s largest business within a few years, overtaking mobile. That transition is significant, as data-center chips typically command higher royalties and are directly linked to sustained investment by cloud computing giants racing to build AI capacity.
Arm is also targeting a larger footprint among hyperscalers, aiming to supply half of the central processing units used by the world’s biggest cloud companies by year-end. If realized, that would deepen Arm’s integration into AI workloads and make its revenue base more resilient to consumer demand swings. While the company missed Wall Street expectations on licensing revenue, it still posted record quarterly revenue of $1.242 billion in the final three months of 2025, driven by strong AI demand. That figure exceeded LSEG SmartEstimates, which weights forecasts from analysts with stronger track records, lending further credibility to the growth story.
Market participants say the combination of upgraded telecom guidance and Arm’s AI momentum has sharpened the investment case for SoftBank Group. Andrew Jackson, head of Japan equity strategy at Ortus Advisors, noted that Arm’s upside is increasingly tied to artificial intelligence rather than smartphones, a shift that aligns closely with SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son’s long-held vision of positioning the group at the centre of the AI ecosystem.
The rally also comes at a time when investors are reassessing how to value conglomerates with mixed profiles of stable cash generators and high-growth technology assets. In SoftBank’s case, the telecom business offers ballast, while Arm provides leverage to global AI spending trends. Together, they have helped reframe the group not just as a speculative technology investor, but as a hybrid with both defensive and growth characteristics.
While questions remain around valuation sensitivity to AI cycles and the execution risks inherent in semiconductor markets, the latest results suggest that SoftBank’s core pieces are moving in a more synchronized direction.